I was somehow able to turn the radar function of cruise control off and it never came back on ever with my 2019 UL. After some major service now I have to press and hold the master on button for 2 seconds every time to be in non-radar cruise. What happened? Is there a way to turn off the radar completely?
PS, I have tried the owner's manual tip to press and hold the on button for 15 seconds with no effect

 

The press and hold is the only prescribed method of engaging non-radar cruise. I have never seen any 2018 or
newer Lexus default to dumb cruise without holding the button and I've been a Lexus Tech/Delivery Specialist for 11 years.

Others have asked about avoiding the Radar cruise because they did not know how or did not want to change the
interval distance to the car ahead. The steering wheel button (next to Lane Trace) will change from the default range
of three bars (meaning 3 seconds behind) to 2 or 1 bar. Leaving it at the default value will have semi-trucks cutting you
off! I usually use 2 but 1 is fine in heavier traffic. Our cars will actually do "stop & go traffic" cruise control. Use the 1 bar
setting and you can get down to 1 MPH and crawl along. When the cars ahead stop completely you must do exactly the
same thing you would do without the cruise...step on the throttle.

 

Mcomer, I know you're way smarter than me, so I'm surprised to hear you say that.

When cruise brings me to a stop and then the car in front of me moves again, I get a message on the left side of the dash that says something like "Traffic moving. Use the throttle or press cruise." There's no button by that name, so I tried tapping the upper inboard cruise button ("+/Set"?). And the car hesitated about 1 second and then accelerated. Waaay slow, but it did resume the adaptive cruise function.

 

Does no one read the manuals?

From the 2022 Lexus ES350 Owner's Manual (on page 203 [pdf version] page number will vary by model year):

 

"Does no one read the manuals?"

Easy one. As a general rule, NO. This has been true for years, even though cars have become more and more complex with loads of choices for drivers to make, and it's probably getting worse.

This ties into one of my biggest complaints about JD Powers "quality" surveys when they allow criticism of tech when it's usually operator error/ignorance of how the systems work - and the car gets the blame.

 

Pleased to see a threat disclosing there are others preferring old fashioned “dumb cruise” to adaptive. I regret saying it because somehow I’ve paid to have this technical marvel of adaptive cruise. Considering that, I’ll first use the good suggestion of turning the sensitivity setting down to 1. Maybe that will eliminate the dissatisfaction I have with the adaptive cruise.
I’d be curious to see poll numbers showing what portion of adaptive cruise owners prefer old fashioned “dumb cruise” instead. (And I certainly don’t refer to the Senator!)

 

Good point——though it certainly wouldn’t hurt if they wrote them a bit simpler and less technical and verbose. To my wife, for example, and man, many consumers like her, much of the writing is gibberish.

 

Lexus has (finally) added eManuals to the dash screen. Press the center console "Menu"
and then the on screen "Info". Sweep to the left and press eManuals at the bottom. Only
works in Park, the Keyword search and Index are just condensed versions of the printed book.
The useful items are the Videos. "A picture is worth 1000 words" was never more true when
you can pop open the Dynamic Radar Cruise video rather than deciphering 10 pages of gibberish.
No sound track, 15 seconds of legal disclaimers and then a nicely done animation.

 

Lexfinally and all. While we usually drive our ES300h in ECO, when using the Dynamic Cruise for stop and go traffic
I switch the Drive Mode to Sport. This will more closely mimic how I would drive with quicker response and more
throttle. If using the steering wheel buttons to move from a dead stop be sure to press RES+ (resume/increase speed).
If you inadvertently press SET- (set/decrease speed) you will be resetting your goal speed to your current very slow speed!

 

Thank you! I’ll check it out.

 

Why on earth would you use non radar cruise. On a 500 mile road trip with my wife's RX this weekend and it (radar) performs flawlessly on the highway. Anyone want crank windows??

 

In my opinion, the new fangled Dynamic Range Cruise Control (DRCC) is the only cruise control system worthy of being called cruise control.

The old fashioned “dumb cruise” is just that - too dumb. While it is better than nothing all the dumb system does is relieve one of having to use one's foot on the accelerator pedal to maintain a desired "constant" speed. You still have to keep a relatively closer attention to the driving environment same as one has to do with no cruise control along with an added fuss factor of having to manually intervene with the system for changing traffic and avoiding things such as constant speed collision events.

In previous vehicles with just dumb cruise control, I seldom, if ever, used the cruise control system even on long road trips. Too much of a fuss factor and need for manual system fiddling to adjust for traffic pattern changes.

 

My 1972 Honda CB 500 motorcycle had a simple knurled **** that held a constant throttle.
Not a constant speed on hills but let you stretch and relieve the tedium.

 

i did a long trip this weekend. the radar cruise was great until cars start cutting in front of you then the car thinks its the end of the world and starts putting 10 car lengths in front of you then the cars in back get mad cause you're suddenly braking. so if i use it, i make sure it's a long clear view in front of me with light or no traffic otherwise the system freaks out and makes you look bad.

 

That's one behavior it doesn't do well with - the jerky driver that cuts you off. Even with distance set to minimum, it still tends to overreact but oh well, the folks behind you have to deal with it!